A blog about software engineering and other topics.written by Jonathan Dodds

December 22, 2005

Maximizing Amazon Referral Fees

If you plan to buy his book, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, from Amazon, Steve Krug would like you to purchase the book by clicking through his referral link because, he says, the Amazon referral fee is more than the book royalty.

Amazon’s referral program is named “Amazon Associates.” TypePad has built-in support and many bloggers, including myself, have Amazon Associates accounts. There’s a tool on the Amazon Associates site that given an ASIN or ISBN will generate a referral link.

Last Summer someone clicked through one of my referral links and later asked me if I saw any money from it.

“Ah, no.”

Amazon didn’t credit the referral. It wasn’t an error. Under the terms of the Amazon Associates program there are a number of conditions that must be met for a referral to be counted.

If you’re planning to shop on Amazon anyway, you might want to spread some extra holiday cheer by clicking through your favorite blogger’s Amazon referral links. If that sounds like a good idea, then read on. You can benefit from my experience. Having learned the hard way, I have some guidelines to share for maximizing the referral fee an associate will receive.